All posts tagged ‘Engineering’

A group of engineering students at the University of Adelaide have built a vehicle that would be perfectly at home in just about any science fiction movie you’ve ever seen: Electric Diwheel with Active Rotation Damping, or EDWARD for short.

This honors project involved the construction of a human operated diwheel. Many diwheels in the past have been human powered or powered by IC engines. This one is purely electric. It has additional functionality lacking in other models, including inbuilt dynamic lateral stability and slosh control to prevent “gerbiling” or tumbling in aggressive braking or acceleration maneuvers. The diwheel also incorporates a unique feature that allows the rider to drive the vehicle when “upside down” – keeping the vehicle in its unstable state is achieved using a combined swingup and inversion controller. The mechanical design and some of the electronics was completed in 2009, with the majority of the electronics and control systems developed in 2010.

Intrigued by that description? Well then, you’re definitely going to want to see the diwheel in action:

I’m not a huge fan of bicycles and cycling, but even I have to admit that this two-wheeled mode of transportation is cool…

Two things I always geek out over is Lego and Electronics. I love building things with both, and while I’ve seen some cool electronics Lego (Legtronics?) hacks this one is probably the most functional. Putting a resistor in the minifigs hands connects the resistor to a custom circuit that sends the resistance to a PC via a USB connection. There is also a way to test AA and AAA batteries.

David, the creative mind behind Robot Room, gives a ton of details about the build. Including wiring up minifigs and adding LEDs to their heads. The build is detailed at David’s Robot Room page.

Wouldn’t it be cool to go out to your mailbox and find a kit to build a lightsaber. How about an intro to lock picking, juggling or building a marble run? The people at Parts and Crafts think it would be cool, too. That’s why they started Community Supported Education (CSE).

CSE will be sending out a monthly box of stuff to do a hands-on craft, technology or engineering project. The projects are kid tested and sometimes kid developed in their summer and year-long programs. If you’re in the Somerville, Massachusetts area you can choose to pick your kit up instead. Which gives you a chance to check out their classes also.

To raise money to get CSE off the ground they put up Community Supported Education KickStarter Page If you pledge $35.00 or more you can have the LED lightsaber kit shipped directly to your mailbox. The more you pledge the more awesome you can get sent to your mailbox and the more fun you and the kids are going to have.

Found this in the science section of Reddit. This ancient machine was discovered by divers in 1908 off the coast of Antikythera. Coverd in corrosion the purpose of the device remained a mystery for almost 100 years. Through the use of X-Rays and CAT scans scientists were able learn that the device was an extremely accurate computer used by the Greeks to predict eclipses and other celestial events.

Andrew Carol, who has a passion for mechanical devices and Lego, built a working version of the Antikythera Mechanism using Legos. Andrew was working with fixed gear sizes so he needed more gears than the original device which used custom made gears. The end product works exactly as the original. If you want to find out more about Andrew’s work and the theory behind this magnificent piece of Lego Engineering check out his web page which is hosted by none other than Steve Wozniak. That is some serious geek cred there! You can also check out his Lego Difference Engine while your there.

There is also a video that explains more about the device and Andrews model.

Science is hot right now. Everywhere I travel parents are in a panic to get their kids interested in science. I guess one day, America woke up and realized our pipeline of home-grown engineers, scientists, and inventors was drying up.

Let’s face it: subjects like science and math have an unfortunate reputation for being boring and dry and, dare I say, even “nerdy.” Honestly, that is how I felt when I was 12. Science was so often taught as a list of facts to memorize: “List the components of a cell,” “What does H2O stand for?” “Who is the father of the theory of relativity?” Snore. I didn’t understand why science couldn’t be more like art class. So I can understand where kids are coming from today.

Another huge roadblock for students is the lack of role models in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (what the President calls the STEM initiative) in our media-driven world of glamour, fame, and money. Close your eyes and picture a scientist. Do you see an awkward nerdy man with bad posture, glasses and a lab coat? Who wants to be him when you are inundated with exciting visions of gorgeous movie stars and rich athletes?

If you’re within day-trip range of Washington, D.C., and aren’t yet planning to go to the USA Science & Engineering Festival expo today, what in the wide, wide world of sports are you waiting for? Quit reading blogs and go — the blog articles will still be there when you get back.

My kids and I went yesterday to the (free) expo and had an absolute blast. There’s stuff for kids of pretty much all ages — and if you’re having trouble figuring out what’s age-appropriate for your kids, the expo’s website lets you filter the list of exhibits by age range. It’s so wonderful to see the huge turnout the expo is getting, and the various exhibits do a great job of making science and engineering accessible to kids and to less scientifically-inclined adults. We had so much fun there yesterday we’re going back today!

And there are, as you’d expect, a ton of geeks there. I wore one of my GeekDad shirts, of course, and I’ve rarely received so many compliments on it — not so much from people who read this blog, but mostly from people who thought it was cool that I was a geek and a parent and proud of being both … in other words, people who should be reading this blog.

I’ll write up more about the festival in the next few days. But I wanted to make sure to get the call out today: If you can get yourself and your kids down to D.C. today between 10am and 5:30pm, I promise you won’t be disappointed if you do. And if you go, keep an eye out for a guy wearing a GeekDad shirt with two kids wearing Red Sox baseball caps, and please introduce yourself if you see me — I always love to meet our readers.

There is something very reassuring about seeing the president of the United States work to address something that you see as a significant problem. I can now state from personal experience that it is even more reassuring to observe that work in person.

I had the great privilege to be a member of the press pool at yesterday’s inaugural White House Science Fair. With camera in hand, I watched and listened as President Obama spoke personally with the American student winners of various major national and international science and engineering competitions. I then stood in the audience for his speech about the science fair and about his administration’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative.

It could easily have been sped through like so many events with so many politicians are. But it was clear from the moment Mr. Obama entered the science fair exhibit room that he wasn’t there as a politician but as a leader who — whatever you may think of his policies in general — is deeply committed to ensuring that the future sees a United States that can compete with the rest of the world in science and engineering. He spoke with each student and team for a while, and he had a real conversation with each: he listened, tried things out, examined the visual pieces of each project, and asked intelligent questions about the process and practical applications of each. He even managed to — to a degree, anyway — put the students at ease, which is not an easy task with young people standing in the White House State Dining Room talking with the president while a jumbled line of photographers and videographers vies with one-another for a good shot. One student was even able to find the nerve to ask the president for a fist bump, a request which Mr. Obama, amused if a bit surprised, obliged.

The president said a few words in the exhibit room before moving to the East Room for his scheduled, scripted speech. He spoke of the students there and others like them as the bright future of the country, and said he expected to see some of them visit the White House many years from now as Nobel Prize winners. I watched the faces of the students watching him as he said this, and I have to say that, while Mr. Obama is of course a politician and I can’t know for certain that he meant everything he said, I can tell you that the students soaked it in. If indeed any of them does return to the White House in years to come with a Nobel medal around his or her neck, a little something will be owed to this occasion, when Mr. Obama gave them a kind of support and confidence not easily found elsewhere.

This Sunday, October 10, will be the start of the first-ever USA Science and Engineering Festival. Running through October 24, the goal is to encourage local universities, museums, science centers, businesses, schools and other community–based organizations across the country to present compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science happenings that will help get kids interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering and math — the STEM subjects that educators everywhere have begun to focus on.

A fellow Scout Leader gave me this book, by John Austin, as a gift for helping out with the Cub Scouts engineering pin. The book was a fitting gift because there are fun and engaging engineering projects throughout the book that will teach and entertain you and your kids.

The book is divided into sections that outlines different types of weapons. Here’s a rundown:

Small Launchers: Shoot BB’s, coins, paper-clips and toothpicks.

Bows and Slingshots: Turn a few pens and some rubber-bands into harbingers of doom

Darts: Sorry no recipe for poison just the darts

Catapults: Desktop sized siege weapons. These are my favorite

Combustion Shooters: Get into detention with a bang. These require a responsible grown up. I usually fake that.

Minibombs and Claymore Mines: They sound worse than they are.

Concealing Books and Targets: Some home made targets and ways to sneak the weapons into class

As Geek Dads (and Moms) we are raising our kids with an appreciation for science, engineering, and technology. While my son took to science right away, I had to encourage my daughter a little. She’s come around well and even formed her own VEX Robotics team last year.

The folks at WGBH have created an initiative that they call the Engineer’s Pledge. The goal is to encourage more girls to understand better and explore the field of engineering. By emphasizing the the creative side of engineering, promoting collaboration, and refining the image of an engineer, they hope to even the playing field a little.